Challenge 8 - Movers and shakers

[BarbyW]

After the meeting with the Governor, Mayor Barby arrived home the following day nursing a hangover. "The Governor  is sure generous with his booze," she said to her secretary. "Tomorrow I want to meet with the leaders of all the communes in the region. We have new information from the Governor that is important. We shall meet here at 10am sharp."

The following morning all the commune leaders arrived and sat round the large table in the Mayoral Chambers. Mayor Barby placed the region map in front of them.



"The Governor has told us we need to build air and seaports where they are needed to encourage the import and export of our products. I need you to tell me what you need and how you will implement it."

A cacophony of sound erupted in the Mayoral Chamber. All the leaders wanted to speak at once. Mayor Barby held up her hand, "One at a time, please. We first of all need to decide where a main airport will be sited. Many of the communes have insufficient space for an airport but we have a plan. As I see it there are three possible sites for a full airport: Lowtown Upper; Border West by changing the military airbase into a civilian airport; or Hightown West where there is suitable development land. I am not in favour of either of the first as Lowtown Upper has no development at the moment and we want to keep that as unspoilt as possible. We need to keep the military presence in the air for the time being so Hightown West seems the best option but what do the rest of you think?"

Benny Fitt held up his hand, "I am happy to see the east of the commune developed and there is enough space to build an airport and also a cargo handling facility for the industrial area. This would still leave the area designated as a regional park away from pollution and noise. I propose to build the main airport in my commune."

The others all shouted at once but again Mayor Barby held up her hand, "We shall take a vote on that and if that is the decision of the council, then I propose that each of you who want the access to the airport should build shuttle facilities to take travellers to the main airport. I have plans for several that would fit into the more congested or less populated communes. We are just talking about airports at the moment. Those of you who wish for seaports can deal with this separately."

After a long discussion involving much coffee (sorry TTC ) and cake the council decided to opt for the airport in Hightown West.

Mayor Barby stood, "Now that you have the plans for both air and sea ports, please go away and construct what you need. Return in 6 months with pictures or plans and explanations of what you have done. Here are the plans for the airport shuttles. I shall see you all when you have finished."

Benny Fitt sent his pictures as the initial airport and cargo handling facitlities were built. He left room for
future expansion to the north. (Tile G)



Mayor Barby was pleased with the result as it left much land undeveloped and to be left as a natural reserve.

Six months later the leaders assembled to show what they had achieved.

Jim Shoo, leader of the rural commune of Lowtown Creek spoke first. "We needed some transport to the airport and so built a small bus stop shuttle to take out commercial travellers. We also needed a port to tranport our goods out and also the goods coming from Lowtown Hills." (Tile A)






Archie Tect - the leader of the Lowtown Hills commune said that they did not need a seaport as they had rail access to the port in Lowtown Creek and as they have very little commercial development there is no need at this time for any airport access.(Tile B)

Arthur Moe from Lowtown Bay also declined to build any seaport but said that his commercial sector had lobbied long and hard for an airport. As there was little undeveloped land and no one was willing to demolish for building anything big Arthur had had a bus shuttle built to take the air travellers to the main airport. He said that they had examined the possibility of providing air traveller access to the resort island but decided against it as it is an exclusive and traffic free area.(Tile K)



"In Border East", said Allie Munney, "we had the now redundant border crossing. My commercial sector requested the dismantling of this to build a larger shuttle facility. We did as they requested as we have no argument with the South now." (Tile L)





"In Border Middle we decided to use the river to provide our airport." explained Artie Fischell. "It is a small
seaplane facility but it serves the needs of our commercial clients." (Tile F)




"As we already have the military airport in Border West," said Mary-Chris Masse, "we considered converting that into a civilian one. As there is little other development in my commune and you all seemed happy to have the main airport built in Hightown West we decided against that and built a bus shuttle for the small number of commercial travellers that we have at the moment."(Tile D)



Next to stand was Al O'Veeragh, leader from Hightown Bay. "We have a strong agricultural and industrial sector and to serve both we have built two ports. The smaller is on the estuary of the river and serves the farming community.
The larger industrial container port sits on the ocean and takes containers of goods far and wide. At the current time we have no need to provide transport for air travellers."(Tile M)



In Hightown Central", said Penny Farthing, " we have a strong commercial sector and also a university. We decided to take the medium airport shuttle option and built it ajoining the university. It is being used and will need to be updated soon." (Tile I)



"Hightown has a thriving canal system that transports goods as well as passengers. We opted to use that as the basis for a port", said Bill Borde. "The goods now can be transported out of the commune by canal or by sea giving us a greater export market. As for commercial travellers, we have a growing demand for commercial premises and close to some new zones have built the airport shuttle. It has proved a great success and is used to capacity."

(Tile H)





The final leader to stand was Benny Fischell, Artie's twin brother.
"Our proposal caused much local interest and made the headlines for some days in the Bordertown Bugle. The land defences have finally gone and the air defence is remaining so we proposed to demolish the no longer needed naval base and develop the land into a port. There was a lot of resistance to the project as it involved demolishing housing but we promised to find alternative housing and jobs for the service personnel so eventually we did the work. As you can see the port fits beautifully into the previous naval base and even left a small amount of land for industrial use. We also built an airport shuttle which has plenty of parking space and a regular bus service to the main airport." (Tile E)


"The whole region now has an excellent sea and air transport system, "said Mayor Barby. "All except the seaplane base can be upgraded as needed and new runways can even be built if the main airport needs them. The cargo handling facility in Hightown West is functioning fully and efficiently. All in all a very satisfactory outcome."



At the conclusion of the meeting the Mayor had one final surprise for the commune leaders. "Lowtown Upper is the last wilderness in GRV. It has the highest peaks and has long been admired for its natural beauty." (Tile C)



"I have marked the highest point which has always been known as Peak A'Boo and to our knowledge has never been scaled. It stands at over 900m above sea level and is an awesome mountain even though the snow line is high. Well," she continued, "it appears as though finally someone has conquered the peak but I have no idea who. I received the following piece of newspaper in an envelope today. It has no postmark and no form of identification. If any of you know what flag this is, please speak up now."



The leaders looked at the extract of paper and each shook his or her head. No one could enlighten the Mayor but maybe one of our readers will be able to.

(Note to all readers including Fred. All the sea and airports shown in this update are upgradeable automatically and are from the X-Ports and AC Functional Airport packages. They have been used with both BLS Industrial wharves and also the BRT WIMPs sets and have not caused any CTDs. The shuttles were developed to give airports in small areas in the sme way that joerg's Airport Tram did.)

[Diggis]

The leaders looked at the extract of paper and each shook his or her head. No one could enlighten the Mayor but maybe one of our readers will be able to.

I know who climbed the mountain.... 

[jmyers2043]

Wow - that's some update.    During one of my travels to lands far and away I saw that very same flag. Now where was it? Let me think. Ah, the kingdom of Son et Lumiere      

[Bobbi]

There're many functional airport and seaport!

[TheTeaCat]

I know where I've seen that flag before
In a Celtic part of France as far as I can remember

Fantastic update, truly spectacular


regards
Derry

[geoffhaw]

I know who climbed the mountain.... 

Nah, you know it couldn't have been me.  I was with you all day...

[lynncanox]

Very very nice update Barby, I like it much. Your region has grown many towns and it looks this way. I like the details you have shown in cercles.

Bon travail et aussi très bien réussi.

                                 Lynn

[metarvo]

Good work, Barby!    I really like the seaplane airport and the canal.